Sahra Wagenknecht doesn’t want to make a mistake: The prominent left-wing politician will only answer the hotly debated question of whether she will found her own party in the next few months.
“I assume that the decisions will be made within the next nine months. It must be clear by the end of the year how things will continue,” said the 53-year-old to the news portal “ZDFheute.de”. The left tip sharply criticized Wagenknecht’s statements. Left veteran Gregor Gysi asked his party colleague to make a decision soon.
No “one woman show”
In the interview, Wagenknecht gave the reasons for her cautious approach: “The expectation that one could – even if one had decided – just launch such a party from one week to the next, that would be doomed to failure.” Wagenknecht points to the necessary structures, legal considerations and the fact that she needs enough supporters. A new project can only work with a really reliable team that takes over many of the things for which she simply has no talent. “As a one-woman show, I can’t do that.”
Strangers with political craft
Wagenknecht is more of an intellectual lone warrior who likes to write books. According to her own statements, she finds it difficult to do the actual political work. “Controlling the apparatus” is foreign to her, she once said – for example leading party friends, maintaining networks, drumming for support in roundtables.
“I can also imagine a perspective as a writer and publicist,” she says in an interview. “But I would also like to make a difference politically, I’ll say that honestly.” But before deciding on “such a project”, Wagenknecht wants to be sure that it can work. “I don’t want to end my political career with a flop.” She still remembers the failed attempt to set up a cross-party leftist rally. The “Get Up” project launched in 2018 did not catch fire.
No future in the Left Party
Wagenknecht sees no future for himself in the Left Party itself. At the beginning of March, she made it clear that she no longer wanted to run for the Bundestag for the left. After the end of this legislative period in 2025, there should either be an end to politics “or something new will arise politically”.
She has been at odds with her party for years, but they have been at odds with her as well. On the one hand, Wagenknecht is something like the prominent figurehead of the left and is invited to every talk show, on the other hand, she repeatedly brushes against the grain and the official course of the party on controversial topics: In refugee policy, she spoke out against open borders; she expressed skepticism about vaccination at Corona; and in her book “The Self-Righteous” she settled accounts with the part of her party that was committed to gender and the climate.
Offers from the AfD
Wagenknecht also caused offense when it came to Russia and Ukraine, when she accused the federal government of an economic war against Russia – which corresponds one to one to the choice of words by AfD boss Tino Chrupalla. Most recently, together with Alice Schwarzer, she had campaigned for negotiations and compromises “on both sides” with a “Manifesto for Peace” and mobilized thousands in Berlin at a large demonstration. Wagenknecht received an invitation from Thuringia’s AfD boss Björn Höcke to join the AfD.
“Don’t torment the party forever”
On Saturday, the top of the left criticized the politician’s mind games regarding a possible founding of a party: “Announcing that you want to decide on the formation of a competing party in the course of the next few months is irresponsible,” explained the left chairmen Janine Wissler and Martin Schirdewan. In the face of war, the climate crisis, inflation and strikes, the left is more in demand than ever. “We call on everyone to reject divisive efforts,” they added.
Wagenknecht’s party friend Gregor Gysi cannot imagine that another party besides the left would have great chances. In his opinion, the necessary “left mood” is currently missing in society, as he said “ZDFheute.de”. He appealed to Wagenknecht and possible sympathizers: “If people plan to do this, they should do it quickly and not torment the party forever.”
